Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 8/20/26: Hegseth Hid Damage To Bases, Fox News Data Center Propaganda, Palestinian American Begs US For Help From Settlers

Transcript

8/20/26: Hegseth Hid Damage To Bases, Fox News Data Center Propaganda, Palestinian American Begs US For Help From Settlers · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.
0:01
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0:30
Speaker 2: Very excited for our next guest, who can break down
0:33
Speaker 2: all of the shipping and logistics issues at the center
0:36
Speaker 2: of the Iran War. Sala Maricogliano is with the what's
0:39
Speaker 2: going on with shipping at YouTube channel? Everybody, go subscribe.
0:42
Speaker 2: Fantastic work you're doing over there.
0:44
Speaker 1: Welcome sou Oh, thank you for having me.
0:46
Speaker 2: Cristel, yeah, of course, and Saga regrets not being here.
0:48
Speaker 2: Suddenly all of our mics except for mine stopped working,
0:51
Speaker 2: so I get the privilege of interviewing you solo. But
0:54
Speaker 2: I wanted to start with a little bit of the
0:56
Speaker 2: state of affairs with the straight offor moves. As best
0:59
Speaker 2: we can tell here, there's Trump insisting that the strait
1:01
Speaker 2: is open. At this point, I'll ask you by Canada,
1:03
Speaker 2: But first the Treasury Secretary says.
1:05
Speaker 4: That we could see the most impactful sanctions on Iran
1:08
Speaker 4: this week.
1:09
Speaker 5: When will they come and what else could be sanctioned
1:12
Speaker 5: on Rand?
1:13
Speaker 6: Well, we have things that we could sanction. We have
1:15
Speaker 6: very draconian sanctions, and we'll see what happens. Right now,
1:20
Speaker 6: the strait is open. We a lot of boats are
1:23
Speaker 6: coming through. People aren't reporting that, and that may slow
1:26
Speaker 6: down a little bit at some point, but right now
1:28
Speaker 6: a lot of boats are coming through. The naval blockade
1:32
Speaker 6: has been extremely effective.
1:34
Speaker 2: So this is something as a layperson I've had, frankly,
1:36
Speaker 2: a lot of trouble tracking just how many boats are
1:38
Speaker 2: getting through the Strait of horm moves. So what do
1:41
Speaker 2: we know at this point of how choked off shipping
1:43
Speaker 2: is through this region.
1:45
Speaker 7: Well, what we do know is we could track the
1:47
Speaker 7: vessels that are loading up against the docks in Saudi
1:50
Speaker 7: Arabia and throughout the Persian Gulf.
1:52
Speaker 8: That's visual. We can see that, and so we have
1:55
Speaker 8: a good idea.
1:55
Speaker 7: Obviously, ships are turning off their tracking as they go
1:58
Speaker 7: through the Straight of Horror moves, so you can't really
2:00
Speaker 7: use AIS data until they come out what we think
2:03
Speaker 7: is coming out. Secretary of Energy right came out and
2:06
Speaker 7: said we're seeing anywhere from a range of about nine
2:09
Speaker 7: million barrels per day coming out of the Straight of
2:11
Speaker 7: hor moves, and he said that's giving us a total
2:13
Speaker 7: of about fifteen million with the bypasses in effect. However,
2:17
Speaker 7: prior to the war, with the Straight of Horror moves
2:20
Speaker 7: and the bypasses, we were getting about twenty three million barrels.
2:22
Speaker 7: So we're nowhere near the level that we were pre war,
2:26
Speaker 7: and that's one of the big concerns. But the more
2:29
Speaker 7: particular concern right now is the fact that the Iranians
2:32
Speaker 7: seem to be hitting ships very consistently coming out of
2:35
Speaker 7: the Straight of Horror moves, to the point that we
2:37
Speaker 7: just saw three Chinese tankers heading for the Straight of
2:40
Speaker 7: Horror moves coming out turn around, and that's going to
2:44
Speaker 7: slow up the ability of ships to come out. So
2:47
Speaker 7: right now we're seeing some ships come out, we're catching
2:50
Speaker 7: them as they come out into the Indian Ocean and
2:51
Speaker 7: they turn back on their transponders and come out.
2:54
Speaker 8: But the problem is it's.
2:55
Speaker 7: Nowhere near at the rate we were, and more importantly,
2:57
Speaker 7: it's not flowing in a consistent manner because a lot
3:00
Speaker 7: of that oil that does come out of the straight
3:01
Speaker 7: oh Horror moves then has to be transferred to other
3:04
Speaker 7: tankers because those same tankers come back into the straight
3:07
Speaker 7: Ohorn moves.
3:08
Speaker 8: So it's not a very smooth flow. We're not getting levels.
3:11
Speaker 2: So are they still doing this shuttling process? Is that
3:14
Speaker 2: what you're referring to there?
3:15
Speaker 7: Yeah, the process that had begun early on under that
3:19
Speaker 7: MoU where the United States was kind of clandestinely operating
3:23
Speaker 7: this southern lane close to Oman, that seems to have
3:26
Speaker 7: been consistently being done. It kind of turns on and
3:29
Speaker 7: off at times, and we catch it. The way we
3:32
Speaker 7: catch these ships coming out is they're coming out of
3:34
Speaker 7: the straight Ohorn moves and they're nesting doing what we
3:36
Speaker 7: call ship to ship transfer. They meet up with ships
3:39
Speaker 7: out in the Gulf of Oman and transfer their fuel.
3:42
Speaker 7: Because most of the ships that are making this run
3:44
Speaker 7: are state owned ships, they're owned by the UAE, by
3:46
Speaker 7: Saudi Arabia, by Kuwait, by Bahrain, and those are the
3:50
Speaker 7: ones that are risking the voyage out because they're ensured
3:54
Speaker 7: by the state and they're getting some sort of protection
3:56
Speaker 7: by the United States, probably aerial protection.
3:59
Speaker 8: Again.
4:00
Speaker 7: Again, the Iranians are demonstrating the fact that they can
4:03
Speaker 7: reach out and touch these ships, and that's the most disturbing.
4:06
Speaker 7: We're seeing at least one or two ships almost hit
4:09
Speaker 7: every day.
4:09
Speaker 8: Now, let me.
4:11
Speaker 2: Get your reaction to a CNN piece that ran recently
4:13
Speaker 2: that you likely saw. The headline is Iran has lost
4:16
Speaker 2: significant control of the Strait of Hormones. I'll just reach
4:19
Speaker 2: you the couple opening paragraphs here. The battle for control
4:21
Speaker 2: the Strait of Hormus has become the focal point of
4:24
Speaker 2: the Iran War. At the moment, the evidence is clear
4:27
Speaker 2: the US, patrolling the strait with its navy, is gaining
4:29
Speaker 2: ground and Iran is losing much of its control of
4:32
Speaker 2: the critical waterway. More than eighty percent of liquid transit
4:35
Speaker 2: through the Straight of Hormones over the past two weeks
4:37
Speaker 2: have taken the Omani Route, a un authorized shipping channel
4:41
Speaker 2: that Iran vehemently opposes, or have been dark transits that
4:44
Speaker 2: likely took the Omani Route, according to Kipler, which tracks
4:47
Speaker 2: ships using transponders and satellite data, I saw a lot
4:50
Speaker 2: of debate around this piece. I wonder what you make
4:52
Speaker 2: of that.
4:53
Speaker 7: Yeah, the Iranians are losing a little bit of control,
4:56
Speaker 7: but that has a lot to do with the US
4:57
Speaker 7: blockade too. Because the US is stopping Iranian ships from
5:01
Speaker 7: flowing in, they're also stopping ships that are going to
5:03
Speaker 7: in Iran, and so a lot of that traffic that
5:06
Speaker 7: was coming out through that northern route, which which was
5:09
Speaker 7: the Iranian Channel close to Cashium and Laric Island, that
5:13
Speaker 7: was Iranian ships in the US. Once they reinstituted the blockade,
5:16
Speaker 7: what we're seeing is a lot of Iranian ships heaving
5:19
Speaker 7: to and basically sheltering in the territorial waters of India,
5:24
Speaker 7: Sri Lanka, and off the coast of Malaysia. And Iran
5:28
Speaker 7: had been working deals with countries to broker their passage
5:32
Speaker 7: through that northern Iranian Straight. Behind the scenes, the US
5:35
Speaker 7: is exerting a lot of pressure on the ships that
5:38
Speaker 7: we're using the Iranian route. They're saying that if you
5:41
Speaker 7: do business with the Iranians. What's called the Persian Gulf
5:44
Speaker 7: Straight Authority, which is operated and controlled by the IRGC,
5:49
Speaker 7: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. You are going to be sanctioned,
5:53
Speaker 7: meaning if you touch that, you know that oil you're
5:55
Speaker 7: carrying the tanker is going to be under a US
5:58
Speaker 7: and potentially other sanctions. So they're trying to use economic
6:02
Speaker 7: coersion against the Iranians and that is having an effect
6:05
Speaker 7: where we're seeing less ships come out through the Iranian route.
6:08
Speaker 2: Turning to another issue that you've been tracking closely, We've
6:11
Speaker 2: also been trying to track closely here on the show
6:13
Speaker 2: some of the dire conditions and supplying issues with regard
6:17
Speaker 2: to our navy and specifically sailors aboard these carriers in
6:21
Speaker 2: the region. Give people the top level overview of what
6:25
Speaker 2: has occurred in this war that has made this provisioning
6:29
Speaker 2: of these ships very difficult.
6:31
Speaker 7: Well, in many ways, this goes back crystal to the
6:34
Speaker 7: concept of the war in general. The Trump administration came
6:37
Speaker 7: in with the idea that this is going to be
6:39
Speaker 7: a short war. They envisioned an offensive operation two to
6:42
Speaker 7: four weeks, and I don't think they foresaw a shutdown
6:46
Speaker 7: of the straight up horror moves to the level that
6:48
Speaker 7: it happened. I think they were looking at what happened
6:50
Speaker 7: back in July of twenty twenty five. We saw a
6:52
Speaker 7: slight reduction in traffic through the Straight of Horror moves,
6:55
Speaker 7: but the Iranians never targeted ships to the scale that
6:58
Speaker 7: we saw March. First, they started hitting ships and that
7:01
Speaker 7: locked everything up in the Straight of Horror moves. But
7:03
Speaker 7: more importantly, prior to the launching of the attack, the
7:06
Speaker 7: United States Navy and Coastguard pulled all its assets out
7:10
Speaker 7: of the Persian Gulf, meaning that the bases that were
7:13
Speaker 7: located in the Persian Gulf, particularly Bahrain, the base at Manana,
7:17
Speaker 7: and the other bases in places like Abu Dhabi and
7:20
Speaker 7: Dubai and the UAE and Fujara, they were lost to
7:24
Speaker 7: the United States. And once the US stopped their offensive operations,
7:29
Speaker 7: the hope was the US Navy would be able to
7:31
Speaker 7: pull back, resupply and kind of get themselves restored, but
7:35
Speaker 7: they immediately went into a blockade operation and that blockade
7:39
Speaker 7: has been kind of on and off, and unfortunately what
7:41
Speaker 7: has happened is to sustain that US fleet. Instead of
7:45
Speaker 7: being just a few hundred miles from bases, there are
7:48
Speaker 7: now several thousand miles from bases Diego Garcia and the
7:51
Speaker 7: Central Indian Ocean, and more importantly, the supply for Diego Garcia,
7:55
Speaker 7: which is coming through Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea.
8:00
Speaker 7: We're talking about a supply chain that's actually thousands of
8:03
Speaker 7: miles long, and unfortunately, because of decisions made by not
8:07
Speaker 7: just Trump administration, but previous administration. This goes back to the
8:10
Speaker 7: nineteen nineties with the kind of the peace dividend after
8:12
Speaker 7: the Cold War, We're trying to fight a military operation
8:16
Speaker 7: with a peacetime logistics infrastructure, and unfortunately, once you go
8:20
Speaker 7: to war, you start consuming more fuel, spare parts. And
8:24
Speaker 7: what's happening here and what you're see very graphically in
8:26
Speaker 7: the Lincoln is they just can't keep up that pace
8:29
Speaker 7: of operation and it catches up with them.
8:32
Speaker 9: You know.
8:33
Speaker 2: One of the things I think, you know, everything you
8:35
Speaker 2: say is completely accurate. It's just sometimes hard for me
8:37
Speaker 2: to wrap my head around though, because you talk about
8:39
Speaker 2: a peace dividend after the Cold War, and we see
8:41
Speaker 2: the military expenditures going up and up and up. So
8:44
Speaker 2: I think myself and a lot of Americans are asking, well,
8:46
Speaker 2: what is this money going towards If we're having all
8:50
Speaker 2: of these issues with you know, the very basic idea
8:53
Speaker 2: of you know, logistics and operations in what has been
8:56
Speaker 2: a relatively it's been a very significant war, but relatively
8:59
Speaker 2: short term.
9:00
Speaker 9: The grand scheme of things.
9:02
Speaker 7: Well, in many ways, what we see, and I think
9:04
Speaker 7: Pete Heigsath kind of really embraces this idea is what
9:07
Speaker 7: you're seeing here is the idea that the focus is
9:10
Speaker 7: on really the warfighter. It's on the kind of the
9:13
Speaker 7: point of the spear. Unfortunately, the logistics side, the tail
9:16
Speaker 7: of it, doesn't get the attention it needs. And you know,
9:20
Speaker 7: we see that in commercial We saw that happen during
9:23
Speaker 7: the supply chain crisis during COVID, when all of a
9:25
Speaker 7: sudden toilet paper became a commodity shortage. We see it
9:29
Speaker 7: when all of a sudden there's a disruption and you
9:31
Speaker 7: can't flow goods, when the Port of Baltimore closes because
9:34
Speaker 7: of the DOLLI, when the HOUTHI start attacking ships, and
9:37
Speaker 7: what this takes is a lot of investment in for
9:40
Speaker 7: the infrastructure. One of the things that I've talked about
9:43
Speaker 7: in the past is post Cold War, we should have
9:45
Speaker 7: been shifting our investment in shipping from military shipping into
9:49
Speaker 7: commercial shipping so that we would have the tankers and
9:51
Speaker 7: the cargo ships, and more importantly, the kind of the
9:54
Speaker 7: civilian infrastructure, especially across the Indian Ocean. We see the
9:58
Speaker 7: Chinese doing that, for example with the Belt Road initiative,
10:01
Speaker 7: where they have a lot of infrastructure across the region,
10:04
Speaker 7: and I think that's really one of the focus. Nobody
10:06
Speaker 7: wants to listen to the person in the back of
10:08
Speaker 7: the room who's going to sit there and say, hey,
10:10
Speaker 7: this operation is going to be tough because we may
10:12
Speaker 7: run out of food and fuel and ammunition. But that
10:15
Speaker 7: is the real critical element. And in many ways, we
10:19
Speaker 7: are so good at logistics, and we've been so good
10:21
Speaker 7: at it for so long you kind of take it
10:23
Speaker 7: for granted that it's always going to be there. We're
10:25
Speaker 7: always going to have that supply, and what we're seeing
10:28
Speaker 7: now is a real challenge to it.
10:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, puts four up on the screen. This was something
10:32
Speaker 2: that you flagged that I wanted you to explain for
10:35
Speaker 2: me and for our audience. You said, hearing rumors, the
10:37
Speaker 2: Department of War is going to activate one of the
10:39
Speaker 2: National Security multi mission ships either from a variety of locations,
10:44
Speaker 2: a Head to Diego Garcia mission could be to provide
10:47
Speaker 2: additional housing at Diego Garcia, but also a place where
10:50
Speaker 2: crews can come off US Navy warships for rest and recovery.
10:56
Speaker 2: Talk to us about what you're hearing and what the
10:58
Speaker 2: significance of this would be.
11:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, So this story has also been mentioned by g Captain,
11:04
Speaker 7: an online maritime site, and what we're hearing is is
11:07
Speaker 7: there's talk of activating one of these These vestil lease
11:09
Speaker 7: ships are nominally training ships for the state maritime academies,
11:12
Speaker 7: but they're purposely built there. They've been built up at
11:15
Speaker 7: the Philadelphia Shipyard there under Hanua. Five of them are
11:18
Speaker 7: being built, four of them are out there. They're designed
11:21
Speaker 7: for being used for State training academies trained future mariners,
11:26
Speaker 7: but also for emergency operations. So Diego Garcia is kind
11:30
Speaker 7: of getting overwhelmed in some ways in a lot of aspects.
11:33
Speaker 7: There's a lot of ships coming in, a lot of
11:35
Speaker 7: supplies need to be done. And what these ships do
11:38
Speaker 7: is do two things. Number one and we're not exactly
11:40
Speaker 7: sure the mission because again we're not getting a clear
11:44
Speaker 7: message out of Department of Defense on this is the
11:47
Speaker 7: ships could be used for a temporary birthing area.
11:50
Speaker 8: It could help get the crews off the ships.
11:53
Speaker 7: Now it sounds strange going from one ship to another,
11:55
Speaker 7: but these are much larger ships, more spacious. If you've
11:58
Speaker 7: been on a destroyer, on a warship, you're kind of
12:00
Speaker 7: stacked up in racks, So this gives you a little
12:02
Speaker 7: bit of space. But one of the more disturbing rumors
12:05
Speaker 7: going out is there may be a threat to the
12:07
Speaker 7: air airway to get into Diego Garcia. That moving people
12:11
Speaker 7: in and out of Diego Garcia may become a threat,
12:14
Speaker 7: and so they may want to use these ships to
12:16
Speaker 7: shuttle personnel. We're already bringing extra ships into shuttle supplies,
12:20
Speaker 7: but these ships may be used to move personnel. You
12:23
Speaker 7: may remember, at the very beginning of the conflict, the
12:26
Speaker 7: Iranians lobb two missiles at Diego Garcia. One crash halfway
12:30
Speaker 7: there and one was supposedly intercepted and didn't hit. So,
12:34
Speaker 7: you know, if Diego Garcia is your sole base in
12:36
Speaker 7: the middle of the Indian Ocean, twenty two hundred miles
12:39
Speaker 7: from the blockade line, it's a really important airhead. It's
12:42
Speaker 7: a logistics head, and so you want to have a
12:45
Speaker 7: kind of a redundancy, and that's what these ships may
12:47
Speaker 7: be I shouldn't know, but it's going to take a
12:49
Speaker 7: month to get.
12:50
Speaker 8: These ships there. It's a lot an easy sale to
12:52
Speaker 8: get there.
12:53
Speaker 9: Gotcha.
12:53
Speaker 2: And also UK was originally reluctant to even let us
12:56
Speaker 2: use Diego Garcia for these operations. On the geo political
13:00
Speaker 2: situation significant here as well. Bottom line, as best as
13:03
Speaker 2: you can how much do these supplying issues impact our
13:07
Speaker 2: ability to sustain this blockade and how much do they
13:11
Speaker 2: impact the military options that Trump would have at his disposal.
13:16
Speaker 7: Well, I think what we're going to see is, you know,
13:17
Speaker 7: you're hearing about the swap out of Lincoln for the
13:20
Speaker 7: George Washington battlegroup.
13:21
Speaker 8: This it really doesn't matter because you.
13:23
Speaker 7: Gonn have the same problem once Washington gets on place
13:26
Speaker 7: is providing that logistics. It is as long as you
13:28
Speaker 7: keep trying to fight a war, you know, a wartime operation,
13:32
Speaker 7: and this is war.
13:32
Speaker 8: I mean there's no question a blockade is legally a war.
13:36
Speaker 7: And you're doing those scale of operations, then you're going
13:40
Speaker 7: to be putting a lot of stress on the logistics system.
13:43
Speaker 7: And I mean we're devoting a lot of resources to
13:46
Speaker 7: sustain those two carrier battlegroups.
13:48
Speaker 8: An Amphibious Ready Group. A lot of tension on the Lincoln.
13:51
Speaker 7: But the destroyers out there, the amphibious warships are all
13:54
Speaker 7: having the same problem. They're going through a lot of churm.
13:57
Speaker 7: They're not doing the maintenance, they're not doing this stand out.
14:00
Speaker 7: I've sailed on ships.
14:01
Speaker 8: I was on a ship for eleven months, but we
14:03
Speaker 8: pulled into port once in a while. They don't.
14:05
Speaker 7: And you know, there's a point when you've got to
14:07
Speaker 7: get off the boat and just have a kind of reset.
14:10
Speaker 7: And what we're seeing is really that we saw it
14:13
Speaker 7: with the Ford when the Ford came back in after
14:15
Speaker 7: a really long deployment. We're seeing it with Lincoln right now.
14:19
Speaker 7: And the problem is not just swapping out the ships,
14:22
Speaker 7: but having enough ships to do this. And what we're
14:24
Speaker 7: trying to do is cover a massive amount of real
14:27
Speaker 7: estate and Indian Ocean without enough assets to do it.
14:31
Speaker 7: And you need a much deeper bench of ships to
14:33
Speaker 7: do this. And what it tells us is, you know,
14:36
Speaker 7: we're able to do it. I mean, the warfighters, the
14:39
Speaker 7: sailors and the marines out there are going to do it.
14:41
Speaker 8: They're going to do their mission.
14:42
Speaker 7: But we're seeing the impact from the families and that impact.
14:47
Speaker 8: And the problem is you can have accidents.
14:49
Speaker 7: And that's the big concern is that when you're tired,
14:51
Speaker 7: when you're out there, accidents happen. A flight deck a
14:54
Speaker 7: destroyer is a really dangerous place just normally, and that's
14:58
Speaker 7: the fear I have out there is that we could
15:00
Speaker 7: see a really horrendous accident take place.
15:03
Speaker 9: YEA.
15:03
Speaker 2: And actually, lastly, if you could just speaking from your
15:05
Speaker 2: personal experience, because I think we try to imagine what
15:09
Speaker 2: it's like for these sailors and marines, what they're going through,
15:12
Speaker 2: but those of us who've been on ship for any
15:14
Speaker 2: length of time, I think it's hard to really put
15:16
Speaker 2: yourself in that mind space. What do you think is
15:18
Speaker 2: going on for them mentally physically? When you say you
15:22
Speaker 2: get to a point where you've got to get off
15:23
Speaker 2: the boat, what is that like?
15:25
Speaker 7: It's I mean, every day's Groundhog Day. It's the same
15:27
Speaker 7: day over and over again. There's no there's no weekend.
15:30
Speaker 7: It's Monday, because you know you're running that same operation
15:33
Speaker 7: all the time. Lincoln is averaging fifty flights a day,
15:37
Speaker 7: which may not sound like a lot, but it's a
15:39
Speaker 7: huge tempo of operation. They've got to replenish, they've got
15:43
Speaker 7: to refuel. You've got you know, five thousand people on board.
15:45
Speaker 7: You've got to cook fifteen thousand meals, you know. And
15:48
Speaker 7: it's not just hey, you work for ten to twelve hours,
15:51
Speaker 7: but you don't go home. You're you're on the ship,
15:53
Speaker 7: you live where you work, you see the same people,
15:57
Speaker 7: and it becomes very much a grind. And the worst
16:00
Speaker 7: things I would say is kind of the start stop.
16:03
Speaker 7: You know, it's like, oh, you know, we've got a ceasefire.
16:06
Speaker 7: We don't have a ceasfire. The blockaids on, the blockades off,
16:08
Speaker 7: you're going home. What they want is clear communication. They
16:11
Speaker 7: just want to know if I got to go to August,
16:14
Speaker 7: you know, thirty first.
16:16
Speaker 8: Then that's a goal I can set.
16:18
Speaker 7: And that's really one of the worst things you can
16:20
Speaker 7: do is keep extending, extending, extending, And I think that's
16:24
Speaker 7: what starts really getting a bear. I mean, you hear
16:27
Speaker 7: a lot of veterans who are in Afghanistan and Iraq
16:29
Speaker 7: talk about, well, you know, Navy's got it easy. They've
16:31
Speaker 7: got food, they're in air conditioning. It is a chore
16:34
Speaker 7: and it's a dangerous environment to be and we've got
16:36
Speaker 7: ships doing boarding operations. You've got those flight operations going on,
16:41
Speaker 7: and you're asking them to do a lot without and
16:44
Speaker 7: the fear is again, these are old platforms, they've been
16:47
Speaker 7: used a lot, and just the maintenance isn't being done.
16:50
Speaker 7: We saw that on the Ford when they had the
16:52
Speaker 7: fire and the laundry and then all of a sudden
16:54
Speaker 7: you had four hundred crew members who didn't have bunks
16:56
Speaker 7: to sleep it.
16:57
Speaker 9: Oh my gosh.
16:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still a little suspicious that we're getting the
17:00
Speaker 2: full story about that fire in the laundry situation. But sal,
17:03
Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time and your analysis.
17:06
Speaker 2: Everybody goes subscribe to the channel. What's going on with shipping?
17:09
Speaker 2: Salas the man of the moment. Great to have you on.
17:11
Speaker 8: Great to meet you, sir, Christal, Thank you for so
17:13
Speaker 8: much having me anytime.
17:14
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's my pleasure.
17:18
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, I'm back.
17:19
Speaker 3: You have no idea the screaming and all that was
17:23
Speaker 3: involved behind the scenes, but the microphones are now fixed.
17:26
Speaker 1: Wasn't our crew, Yeah it was it was our teams.
17:29
Speaker 2: Fair amazing. They did nothing wrong.
17:31
Speaker 1: I'll leave it.
17:31
Speaker 3: I'll leave it at that in terms of yeah, anyway,
17:34
Speaker 3: so I'm back. Great interview, Crystal.
17:36
Speaker 1: Thank you all right, So let's go ahead and talk
17:39
Speaker 1: about data centers. Let's go put d one up here
17:42
Speaker 1: on the screen.
17:43
Speaker 3: So this is a fascinating, actually internal memo which came
17:47
Speaker 3: from the Senate GOP campaign arm quote. In a private
17:51
Speaker 3: memo to top AI companies, they warned that toxic views
17:55
Speaker 3: of US data centers are killing the party's chances of
17:58
Speaker 3: holding a vital seat in Ohio.
18:01
Speaker 1: In the memo.
18:02
Speaker 3: Obtained by Axios, the NRSC Democrats have made centers a
18:05
Speaker 3: centerpiece of their campaign to defeat Senator John Husted, and
18:09
Speaker 3: it's working.
18:09
Speaker 5: Quote.
18:10
Speaker 3: If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians
18:13
Speaker 3: across the country will take notice. They will not go
18:15
Speaker 3: near the next one. This has become a sleepier issue,
18:17
Speaker 3: sleeper issue for the entire election cycle. Why it matters,
18:21
Speaker 3: Republicans want AI companies to do whatever it takes to
18:23
Speaker 3: stem the public backlash. AI CEOs and top Republicans share
18:27
Speaker 3: in the rising panic. They tell us internal polls show
18:31
Speaker 3: data centers are as popular as nuclear waste, and more broadly,
18:35
Speaker 3: have become a proxy for feelings about AI. Tech giants
18:40
Speaker 3: are now scrambling to pull together media campaigns of which
18:43
Speaker 3: I have certainly found myself a target of to try
18:46
Speaker 3: to shift opinion before it hardens locally and nationally. But
18:49
Speaker 3: Democrats aren't dummies. They see the same polls and are
18:52
Speaker 3: moving fast. And perhaps the single best example of that
18:56
Speaker 3: of the media campaign, we have found this segment which
19:00
Speaker 3: happened what was it two days ago?
19:01
Speaker 6: Yeah?
19:02
Speaker 1: I think like that Fox News.
19:03
Speaker 2: It was right after this Axios story dropped about how
19:06
Speaker 2: Republicans are freaking out about the data center issue and
19:11
Speaker 2: warning the tech industry. Hours later, Fox News launches this
19:15
Speaker 2: little segment.
19:16
Speaker 1: Little campaign, it's a jem. Let's take a listen.
19:19
Speaker 10: I think this is a grave mistake. This is a
19:21
Speaker 10: national security issue that's turning into a local zoning issue.
19:24
Speaker 10: And I don't know anyone if you've ever been to
19:26
Speaker 10: a homeowners meeting that's run well, they never are.
19:29
Speaker 8: And now we're.
19:29
Speaker 10: Putting politicians in charge of a technology that very few
19:32
Speaker 10: of them ever understand, and it's moving too fast. And
19:35
Speaker 10: I would tell you we've been here before, right, Remember
19:38
Speaker 10: five G and cell towers. Nobody wanted them in their backyard,
19:41
Speaker 10: but they wanted five bars of coverage. Same thing here
19:44
Speaker 10: playing out with data centers. People are afraid of what's
19:47
Speaker 10: going to happen.
19:48
Speaker 8: Let they talk about the cost.
19:49
Speaker 10: But here's the funny thing. When it talks about water usage.
19:52
Speaker 10: Your local olive garden uses as much water as an
19:55
Speaker 10: average data center. So I don't hear anyone opposing olive
19:57
Speaker 10: garden on their water usage and bill going up. They
20:00
Speaker 10: should because it's not real Italian food.
20:01
Speaker 8: So we're to race with China, absolutely.
20:03
Speaker 11: And you can look at the numbers, right and I
20:05
Speaker 11: inventions China thirty eight thousand compared to over six thousand
20:08
Speaker 11: for the US patents thirty eight thousand to six. You
20:11
Speaker 11: see what we're seeing here. By the way, robots installed
20:15
Speaker 11: two hundred and seventy six thousand and thirty four.
20:17
Speaker 8: China isn't dealing with any of this.
20:20
Speaker 11: But I wonder if ultimately, forget the scarcity of chips,
20:24
Speaker 11: forget China trying to go without being held back in
20:28
Speaker 11: any way, if the rising opposition to data centers in
20:32
Speaker 11: this country is one of the biggest threats to our
20:36
Speaker 11: development and achieving dominance.
20:38
Speaker 10: Yeah, as you see here, I mean China's building out
20:40
Speaker 10: capacity while the far left building out opposition. The saving
20:43
Speaker 10: grace is federalism here, right, Different states have different laws
20:46
Speaker 10: and rules. So while New York and other states may
20:49
Speaker 10: pass moratoriums which will ultimately damn them and drive up
20:52
Speaker 10: real electricity costs and keep them out of the data
20:55
Speaker 10: center race, I think this administration, the President is very
20:58
Speaker 10: rightly focused on making sure there are plenty of data
21:00
Speaker 10: centers built here. There's over four thousand planned right now,
21:03
Speaker 10: on top of the four thousand that already exists. You
21:05
Speaker 10: know that Virginia is an epicenter, so we're going to
21:07
Speaker 10: see that happen in areas like Texas and New York
21:10
Speaker 10: in spite of some of these regulations.
21:12
Speaker 3: A lot going on there. Oh yeah, China. It's about
21:14
Speaker 3: the far left, just far left weirdos like Greg Abbott,
21:18
Speaker 3: Byron Donald's and Josh Shapiro are the people who are
21:23
Speaker 3: leading the campaign. And just to show you how politically
21:26
Speaker 3: radioactive this all is, let's take Josh Shapiro as a
21:29
Speaker 3: test case. So let's put this up here on the screen.
21:32
Speaker 3: The governor of Pennsylvania. I talked to a polling expert
21:35
Speaker 3: and he said that Shapiro was above water in the
21:38
Speaker 3: state on every issue except for data centers and low
21:42
Speaker 3: and behold, he just comes out yesterday breaking. I just
21:45
Speaker 3: signed an executive order signing order blocking irresponsible AI data centers.
21:50
Speaker 1: Implementing the strictest standards in the nation.
21:52
Speaker 3: I will not allow Pennsylvanians to be bullied by greedy
21:56
Speaker 3: developers and bulldozed by the lawyers working for these big
21:59
Speaker 3: tech company. These effective immediately. We are requiring AI data
22:03
Speaker 3: centers to commit to strict environmental and transparent requirements, receive
22:07
Speaker 3: approval approval from the local community if they want to
22:11
Speaker 3: build here.
22:11
Speaker 1: That's not all.
22:12
Speaker 3: We are also removing all data centers from our fast
22:15
Speaker 3: Track permit program and stopping any office or agency under
22:19
Speaker 3: my jurisdiction from signing an NDA with AI data center developers. Now,
22:25
Speaker 3: let's contrast this two a year ago of Governor Shapiro
22:29
Speaker 3: on CNBC when he talked about a new Amazon data
22:32
Speaker 3: center coming to PA.
22:34
Speaker 1: Let's take a.
22:34
Speaker 12: Listen Amazon announcing plans to invest twenty billion dollars in
22:38
Speaker 12: Pennsylvania to build high tech cloud computing and AI campuses
22:42
Speaker 12: across the state, hoping to create over twelve hundred jobs.
22:45
Speaker 10: Join us.
22:45
Speaker 12: Now, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, is this the biggest ever
22:49
Speaker 12: private investment in Pennsylvania?
22:51
Speaker 13: Governor the biggest ever by a factor of three. And
22:57
Speaker 13: I think it's important to note that this is just
23:00
Speaker 13: an initial investment coming from Amazon of at least twenty
23:03
Speaker 13: billion dollars, So this is going to grow. Pennsylvania is
23:06
Speaker 13: going to be better off. I think America is going
23:08
Speaker 13: to be better off because we're going to win the
23:11
Speaker 13: battle of AI supremacy and it's going to be done
23:14
Speaker 13: right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
23:16
Speaker 3: Look at that little smile on this for the biggest investment,
23:20
Speaker 3: What a difference an entire year makes, And you think
23:23
Speaker 3: that that's far left from Governor Shapiro. Also, for the record,
23:27
Speaker 3: Ali Garden is bad and we should ban them too,
23:29
Speaker 3: that America is not ready for that conversation.
23:30
Speaker 2: Also for the record, what he's saying about the water usage.
23:34
Speaker 9: Is total incomplete bullshit.
23:36
Speaker 2: Just so we know, maybe you could cherry pick some
23:38
Speaker 2: small data center somewhere servicing some sort of something that
23:43
Speaker 2: uses the one to five thousand gallons of water that
23:45
Speaker 2: olive Garden uses, but the AI training data centers use
23:49
Speaker 2: millions of gallons of water. There is no comparison there,
23:53
Speaker 2: So it's just total, in complete bullshit. But it's very
23:57
Speaker 2: very interesting that they want to try to frame them
24:00
Speaker 2: as a far left issue and make it partisan, and
24:03
Speaker 2: I think for some Fox News boomers that may well
24:05
Speaker 2: work if they do it consistently enough. What the polling
24:08
Speaker 2: reflects right now, there's very little divide between Democrats, Republicans,
24:13
Speaker 2: and independence in terms of their opposition to data centers
24:17
Speaker 2: and certainly their opposition to data centers being located in
24:19
Speaker 2: their backyards. A lot of these places are going up
24:22
Speaker 2: in rural America, which of course tends to be more
24:25
Speaker 2: Republican and more conservative. So a lot of the local opposition,
24:29
Speaker 2: grassroots opposition, has been among Republicans, with the in very
24:33
Speaker 2: conservative parts of the country and red parts of the country.
24:36
Speaker 2: So you know, these dynamics are starting to pop up
24:39
Speaker 2: in a lot of races. In Wisconsin, Francesca Honk, who
24:42
Speaker 2: ultimately lost the Democratic nomination, she was the only one
24:45
Speaker 2: in the Democratic primaries who took a clear cut position
24:49
Speaker 2: in favor of a data center moratorium. David Crowley, who won,
24:52
Speaker 2: has a it's sort of a Josh Shapiro esque position.
24:57
Speaker 2: But when he got asked about what's your big difference
24:59
Speaker 2: between you and for Chessca Hank, for some unknown reason,
25:03
Speaker 2: he said data centers, which is one of the issues
25:05
Speaker 2: where she was best. Republicans who have a very similar
25:08
Speaker 2: position to him, by the way, on data centers in
25:10
Speaker 2: the state of Wisconsin, seized on that and they're calling
25:12
Speaker 2: him data center Dave and are very effectively weaponizing this
25:16
Speaker 2: against him because the politics are not just toxic for
25:19
Speaker 2: the quote unquote far left guys, this is a very
25:22
Speaker 2: very very popular position and the freak out I think
25:27
Speaker 2: from the political and the tech elite class is warranted
25:30
Speaker 2: because politicians will look and see if shared brown wins,
25:33
Speaker 2: and a lot of it has to do with data center,
25:35
Speaker 2: they will take that as an example of oh, this
25:37
Speaker 2: is an issue we just can't cross. Moving forward to
25:39
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight, we got to be on the right
25:41
Speaker 2: side of this because people are pissed. They said, it's
25:44
Speaker 2: as popular as nuclear waste. It's actually less popular than
25:47
Speaker 2: having a nuclear facility in your community. People would rather
25:51
Speaker 2: have that than a data center. And a certain way,
25:53
Speaker 2: that actually makes sense because the data centers are really
25:56
Speaker 2: noisy and have a lot of direct impacts and quality
25:58
Speaker 2: of life.
25:58
Speaker 9: And of course on electric Bill.
26:03
Speaker 3: Well, let me show you another far left socialist. His
26:06
Speaker 3: name is Sid Miller. He wears a stetson. He is
26:08
Speaker 3: the Texas Agricultural Commissioner. He was a leading surrogate for
26:13
Speaker 3: Donald Trump in the election.
26:15
Speaker 1: He is one of the most.
26:16
Speaker 3: Well known Republicans in the entire state. Here he is
26:20
Speaker 3: sounding off on the governor of Texas, who, by the way,
26:23
Speaker 3: is now against the data centers, signed a data center
26:26
Speaker 3: moratorium in the most pro business state arguably in the
26:29
Speaker 3: entire Union. And here is a leading Republican elected in
26:32
Speaker 3: that state attacking him for that position, for not getting
26:36
Speaker 3: there soon enough and taking money from those companies.
26:39
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen.
26:41
Speaker 14: If we don't get our cattle supply up, couldn't one argue, well,
26:45
Speaker 14: you're doing something with your land, you know, selling it
26:49
Speaker 14: to an AI company. They can make money off of it,
26:51
Speaker 14: you know, Versus unless we're gonna get more cattle, what's
26:54
Speaker 14: it doing.
26:54
Speaker 15: Well, we do a lot of that, actually that we
26:57
Speaker 15: lose about a form a week here in Texas, either
27:00
Speaker 15: data centers, solar farms, wind farms, housing parks, airports, I mean,
27:07
Speaker 15: you name it. So urban encroachment is getting more farm
27:11
Speaker 15: land than any Are.
27:11
Speaker 1: You worried about these data centers.
27:13
Speaker 15: I'm very worried about the data centers. We're going way
27:15
Speaker 15: too fast here in Texas. Reason they come to Texas,
27:18
Speaker 15: there's in our counties have no oversight ability, so they
27:21
Speaker 15: can just do whatever. If they can pick a place
27:24
Speaker 15: that has no groundwater conservation district and the county has
27:27
Speaker 15: no ordinance, they can do whatever they want. So that's
27:32
Speaker 15: why I called them the governor Abbott for a one
27:34
Speaker 15: year pause, moretorium. Let's let's wait, Let's let the legislature meet,
27:38
Speaker 15: Let's put some guidelines, some oversight on this industry. And
27:42
Speaker 15: September first of twenty seven, well, we'll have a we'll
27:46
Speaker 15: have a handle of this. He refused to do that.
27:48
Speaker 15: Then I called him and said, well, if you're not
27:49
Speaker 15: gonna do that, let's do a special session. You can
27:51
Speaker 15: call them the guys in and gals in tomorrow. We'll get
27:54
Speaker 15: on this. If you saw anything on the call, we'll
27:57
Speaker 15: have it done the week, give it immediate effect. We
28:00
Speaker 15: can control the growth of this industry. He refused to
28:02
Speaker 15: do that. And the reason he's got a huge conflict
28:05
Speaker 15: of interest. Governor Avage taken millions of dollars from the
28:08
Speaker 15: data center industry.
28:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a real far left, you know.
28:12
Speaker 3: I want to address all this stuff too, because and
28:14
Speaker 3: this is where somebody sent me a very thoughtful message
28:17
Speaker 3: and they said, Sager, you are an advocate for nuclear power.
28:21
Speaker 3: Do you not see the parallels where you and I
28:25
Speaker 3: both know nuclear power should have been ubiquitous in this
28:28
Speaker 3: country from the nineteen seventies. However it was not done
28:31
Speaker 3: so because of public backlash, very nimbiasque, because of Three
28:34
Speaker 3: Mile Island and all that other stuff. And I'll go,
28:36
Speaker 3: you know what, I take your point in that public
28:39
Speaker 3: backlash does not always equal the right position. We would
28:42
Speaker 3: be crying for ubiquitous nuclear power and we would live
28:45
Speaker 3: in a much better country if that were the case.
28:47
Speaker 3: But what are the differences? And also even where did
28:50
Speaker 3: they come from at that time? To be fair, we
28:53
Speaker 3: did have Chernobyl and we are or sorry Chernobyl in
28:55
Speaker 3: the eighties and three Mile Island. Now nobody died from
28:58
Speaker 3: Three Mile Island. But the way that it was all
29:01
Speaker 3: handled and the corporate stuff that was you know, look
29:04
Speaker 3: that I don't blame people for being upset about that.
29:07
Speaker 3: And we were living through the horrors of the nuclear
29:09
Speaker 3: age and the duck and cover and all that stuff
29:11
Speaker 3: that those people grew up with.
29:12
Speaker 1: So I get it.
29:13
Speaker 3: Anthropologically it was the wrong decision. But what is AI
29:17
Speaker 3: promising us that is equivalent to a nuclear power because
29:20
Speaker 3: nuclear power would have led to abundance ultimately. And I
29:23
Speaker 3: also got a lot of like, oh, guy who makes
29:25
Speaker 3: his living on YouTube fair I will say, nobody's building
29:28
Speaker 3: a new YouTube or newtube data center to make host
29:31
Speaker 3: YouTube videos. Google PREAI had three new data centers. They
29:35
Speaker 3: have now one hundred and forty that they've announced. That's
29:37
Speaker 3: got nothing to do with what I'm doing over here
29:39
Speaker 3: or tweeting or an email or any of those. Yes,
29:42
Speaker 3: I know those come from data centers. These are AI
29:45
Speaker 3: data centers, and it's a proxy for AI as a technology,
29:49
Speaker 3: and that's where we separate it out.
29:51
Speaker 1: AI is a tool. We use it.
29:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, it can be very useful. But the CEO say
29:55
Speaker 3: we're going to replace you. The CEO say this is
29:58
Speaker 3: equivalent to nuclear weapons I just talked about. The CEO
30:01
Speaker 3: says that there's what is an x percent chance humanity
30:04
Speaker 3: will no longer be involved In fact, that's the plan,
30:07
Speaker 3: that's the underlying growth trajectory. We want people to be fired,
30:10
Speaker 3: they want them to be unnecessary. And by the way
30:13
Speaker 3: we promise we're going to cure cancer, except that hasn't
30:16
Speaker 3: happened yet. They're more recently pointing to this AI assisted
30:20
Speaker 3: Maderna mRNA cancer.
30:22
Speaker 1: Vaccine, which a lot of questions about that one.
30:25
Speaker 3: We'll see if any of that is true, how much
30:27
Speaker 3: of AI even contributed to that. But if it were
30:31
Speaker 3: more like that, I think that'd be fine. But what
30:32
Speaker 3: is it really about. It's about the Internet and our
30:36
Speaker 3: proxy feelings about technology generally. And the proxy feeling is
30:41
Speaker 3: technology has been very useful in terms of capitalism and
30:45
Speaker 3: in terms of productivity, it has been a destruction of
30:48
Speaker 3: basically everything it means to be human. And we see
30:51
Speaker 3: that in all the trend lines over social isolation, over dating,
30:55
Speaker 3: over the birth rate, over I mean, literally any aspect
31:00
Speaker 3: of social life has been killed by the Internet. This
31:02
Speaker 3: is an empirical fact in terms of also our children
31:05
Speaker 3: and their addiction. It is now a proxy battle, I think,
31:09
Speaker 3: for control over our lives, because AI is the ultimate
31:12
Speaker 3: tool of control as we see, and.
31:14
Speaker 8: So I don't know.
31:15
Speaker 3: I'm curious for your reaction too, especially with the nuclear
31:18
Speaker 3: power example, because we have to grapple with that.
31:20
Speaker 1: We know it was very unpopular. It was obviously the
31:22
Speaker 1: right thing to do.
31:23
Speaker 3: But we have to grapple I think with why I
31:26
Speaker 3: think data centers is ultimately different than that.
31:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know the Luddites, the original Lutites, they
31:32
Speaker 2: were not actually opposed to technology. There was technology that
31:35
Speaker 2: they supported being implemented in their workplaces. They were opposed
31:38
Speaker 2: the destruction of their way of life, and in a
31:40
Speaker 2: lot of ways, I think they were ultimately vindicated. And
31:42
Speaker 2: I feel in a similar way here I'm not opposed
31:45
Speaker 2: to technology. But the promise of AI is We're going
31:48
Speaker 2: to rip up the social contract destroy You're in the
31:51
Speaker 2: entire white color labor force first, and then coming from
31:54
Speaker 2: the blue collar labor force next, which has already been,
31:56
Speaker 2: of course, you know, significantly threatened by a lot of
32:00
Speaker 2: the globalization, the global trends that have been pushed by neoliberalism.
32:04
Speaker 2: But in any case, this AI fight and pushback, it
32:08
Speaker 2: is one of the only areas where the public actually
32:11
Speaker 2: has a chance to exert some pressure and be able
32:15
Speaker 2: to successfully have some sort of pushback on this overall trajectory.
32:19
Speaker 2: That's the reason why I focus on it so much
32:23
Speaker 2: and why I think it's so important because at the
32:26
Speaker 2: top level, Trump didn't ask, he didn't run on, Hey,
32:30
Speaker 2: we're going to be off to the races with AI.
32:32
Speaker 2: This was not a central part of his campaign. Now,
32:34
Speaker 2: those of us who are falling could read between the
32:36
Speaker 2: lines and see this as the direction that it was
32:37
Speaker 2: going in, but that was not what he campaigned on.
32:40
Speaker 2: I don't think it was what most Americans who voted
32:43
Speaker 2: for Trump voted for. So there's very little small de
32:47
Speaker 2: democracy occurring in terms of what we're being pitched as
32:51
Speaker 2: this completely revolutionary everything is going to change. No one's
32:54
Speaker 2: life is going to be the same technology. We didn't
32:58
Speaker 2: have buy in, We didn't have a democratics say, and
33:01
Speaker 2: we still don't have a democratics say. The only place
33:03
Speaker 2: where we have a chance to at least slow things
33:06
Speaker 2: down and put some pressure and force them to get
33:09
Speaker 2: some buy in from the public and strike some sort
33:12
Speaker 2: of a deal with the public as they seek to
33:14
Speaker 2: amass all of this immense wealth in power is through
33:19
Speaker 2: the data centers. Then there are, of course, plenty of
33:21
Speaker 2: legitimate concerns. I mean, have you heard the way that
33:24
Speaker 2: some of these things sound. It sounds like a jet
33:25
Speaker 2: airplane is taking off twenty four to seven. You live
33:27
Speaker 2: next to that, that's going to make you absolutely crazy.
33:30
Speaker 2: There have been issues with water supplies running dry because
33:33
Speaker 2: of the impact of the data centers. Of course, there
33:35
Speaker 2: have been massive issues in terms of the increase in
33:38
Speaker 2: the electricity cost.
33:40
Speaker 9: And people look nimbiism.
33:42
Speaker 2: I'm not like a nimbi, but there is something to
33:45
Speaker 2: say about people should get to have some input over
33:48
Speaker 2: the direction of their community and what this ultimately looks like.
33:52
Speaker 2: So I think that this is such an important political
33:55
Speaker 2: fight because it is one of the only areas where
33:58
Speaker 2: there is a chance for grassroots democracy to have any
34:03
Speaker 2: impact here, and that's part of why they're freaking out.
34:06
Speaker 2: There's a reason why there is this concerted campaign now
34:09
Speaker 2: to say that you're wrong and you shouldn't fight these
34:11
Speaker 2: data centers, and these are great for communities, and communities
34:13
Speaker 2: are going to want these things, and you're gonna be
34:15
Speaker 2: on the wrong side of history, et cetera, because it
34:17
Speaker 2: is a weak spot and a vulnerability for them, so
34:19
Speaker 2: that has to be exploited.
34:20
Speaker 3: I saw a good article about Loudon County which the
34:22
Speaker 3: dat'll end on this because I know our guest in
34:23
Speaker 3: the waiting room are our Louden County here in northern
34:26
Speaker 3: Virginia has raised one point three billion in property tax.
34:30
Speaker 3: They're going to use it to outlay make sure that
34:33
Speaker 3: they can cut the rest of their resonance tax. That's
34:35
Speaker 3: great for the people who live there ostensibly, but some
34:39
Speaker 3: forward thinking people in the county are like, you know,
34:42
Speaker 3: this makes us really rely on on this data center, right,
34:45
Speaker 3: and it means that in the future we have to
34:47
Speaker 3: give them whatever we want, because if we don't, we're
34:50
Speaker 3: going to have to raise our property tax. It's a
34:52
Speaker 3: more stable environment for it to be relied on the
34:55
Speaker 3: people who live there as opposed to this single point
34:59
Speaker 3: of failure machine. And everyone's going to say, oh, that's
35:01
Speaker 3: easy for you to say, you're saying property text, but
35:04
Speaker 3: how many examples do we have of this Detroit? Remember
35:06
Speaker 3: what happened to all of those communities in Michigan when
35:09
Speaker 3: the auto guys fell out.
35:11
Speaker 1: They were destroyed their MULTII way of.
35:14
Speaker 9: Life West virgin I mean, that's an extreme example, but.
35:17
Speaker 3: It's not though, because that's kind of what they are saying.
35:20
Speaker 3: Were their whole pitch is we build you tax us
35:22
Speaker 3: you get to pay less in property text. It's like, well,
35:25
Speaker 3: that makes us hello, reliant on you. And it also
35:28
Speaker 3: means that if you ever feel the FEDS are going
35:30
Speaker 3: to have to come in and bail your ass out
35:31
Speaker 3: because otherwise we're going to get stuck.
35:32
Speaker 2: What if it is a giant bubble. What if, by
35:34
Speaker 2: the way, the Chinese are able to do this their
35:36
Speaker 2: models much more efficiently that don't require as much compute.
35:40
Speaker 2: So what if that is the technological direction that things
35:43
Speaker 2: go in and there didn't need to be this whole
35:45
Speaker 2: massive data center build out. What happens then then you're
35:48
Speaker 2: going to be in big trouble and the places that
35:50
Speaker 2: bet the farm on this, and you know, it's also
35:52
Speaker 2: it's very like there is a dynamic here too. I
35:56
Speaker 2: understand why politicians are reluctant to say full data center
35:59
Speaker 2: more to because you have so many parts of this
36:02
Speaker 2: country that have been so decimated and are really desperate
36:05
Speaker 2: for anything that might provide them a lifeline where they
36:08
Speaker 2: might say, yes, okay, come in data Centerum that we
36:10
Speaker 2: have concerns we need something to you know, improve life
36:14
Speaker 2: in this town and create some sort of jobs and
36:16
Speaker 2: some sort of attack space, et cetera.
36:18
Speaker 9: So I do understand that.
36:20
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just a broader issue with the way
36:22
Speaker 2: that we've allowed so many parts of our country to
36:24
Speaker 2: be left behind that they would be desperate enough to say, Okay,
36:27
Speaker 2: you know, come what may, and with all of the
36:29
Speaker 2: costs and consequences that are going to befall us, we
36:33
Speaker 2: still want this to come into our town. So you
36:35
Speaker 2: know there is going to be some of that dynamic too.
36:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
36:38
Speaker 3: It's I think it's the central question of our lives.
36:41
Speaker 3: It's about control, and I think that their whole pitch
36:44
Speaker 3: for us right now, at least.
36:45
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense.
36:46
Speaker 3: And in this case, I'm following other people's lead to
36:49
Speaker 3: because I do think, like I said, nuclear power, people
36:52
Speaker 3: can get things wrong, but generally I'm going to I'm
36:54
Speaker 3: going to go with them on this one because they
36:57
Speaker 3: feel it, they see it. And if you're if you
37:00
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of control in your life, you've
37:01
Speaker 3: got nothing like Ultimately, that is what the purpose of
37:04
Speaker 3: living is for, not to unlock new productivity for their
37:08
Speaker 3: company you work for, which doesn't give a shit about
37:10
Speaker 3: you and is cutting your healthcare premium.
37:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know all right.
37:16
Speaker 2: Israeli settlers have been terrorizing, along with the backing of
37:19
Speaker 2: the IDF, the West Bank village of Kusra and a
37:23
Speaker 2: Houston American an Ohio business owner who has a house
37:26
Speaker 2: there that has been menaced by those settlers joins us.
37:30
Speaker 2: Now live from the West Bank. Louis Riddy is a
37:33
Speaker 2: homeowner there. Great to have you, sir, Good to see you, sir.
37:36
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
37:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, So just tell us what has been
37:40
Speaker 2: going on? What have you witnessed?
37:43
Speaker 4: Well, today is the twelfth day that my house is
37:48
Speaker 4: under a siege by IF and the settlers. We have
37:58
Speaker 4: been dealing with the situation for the last eight months.
38:01
Speaker 4: They came early January of twenty twenty six. In those
38:07
Speaker 4: eight months they were harassing my brother, breaking in, making damages.
38:14
Speaker 4: They cut off the waterline, the electricity line until August ninth,
38:22
Speaker 4: when they decided to come closer and build a tent
38:26
Speaker 4: in front of the house and created a complete siege
38:30
Speaker 4: on my brother and his son and other two houses nearby.
38:36
Speaker 4: And when my brother called the police, they dispatched an
38:39
Speaker 4: IDEA vehicle and they went straight to the their tent
38:43
Speaker 4: and they celebrated with the IDF and they conducted a prayer.
38:48
Speaker 4: So since then, the IDF. Two days three days later
38:54
Speaker 4: they came attempted to involve the settlers, but instead they
39:00
Speaker 4: declared the area as closed military zone, which is prevent
39:07
Speaker 4: us from living the house. No one from the family members, friends,
39:13
Speaker 4: anyone can come to us, bring us foods or supplies.
39:18
Speaker 4: My mother is eighty three years old. Having seen her
39:21
Speaker 4: more than five minutes, unable to come and see me.
39:25
Speaker 4: The IDF for the twelfth is failed and unable to
39:32
Speaker 4: move the settlers, as they still come in daily. Just
39:35
Speaker 4: like an a couple hours ago, they were around my house.
39:40
Speaker 8: Wow.
39:41
Speaker 3: So, Louis, can you explain to our audience how little
39:46
Speaker 3: power you have to intervene in this as a person
39:50
Speaker 3: who owns this property. You know he were obviously from
39:53
Speaker 3: the United States as well, So if you have problems
39:56
Speaker 3: property to you could call the police. You have the county,
39:59
Speaker 3: all of these other people who can intervene on your behalf.
40:02
Speaker 3: Just explain to people the kind of sheer insanity of
40:04
Speaker 3: the system that you're dealing with right now.
40:08
Speaker 4: Well, I've been watching this from Ohio life on my
40:13
Speaker 4: security camera, my brother dealing with the situation. A lot
40:20
Speaker 4: of times they come an assault and make damages to
40:24
Speaker 4: the house, and my brother end up calling the police,
40:27
Speaker 4: and the police dispatched the IVF and most of the
40:30
Speaker 4: time decided with the with the settlers and tearn on
40:35
Speaker 4: my brother and my family. It's become very very hard
40:40
Speaker 4: to survive in this house. So both of them make
40:44
Speaker 4: cans for us, and we reached to the point that
40:48
Speaker 4: I said to myself, I have to book my flights,
40:52
Speaker 4: a flight to support my brother and my own house
40:56
Speaker 4: and to do whatever it takes so I can protect it.
41:01
Speaker 2: There was Reuter's film crew nearby when you were engaged
41:05
Speaker 2: in a heated confrontation with one of these settlers who
41:09
Speaker 2: has been terrorizing not only you but other Palestinians in
41:12
Speaker 2: the West Bank.
41:13
Speaker 9: Let's go ahead and take a look at how that
41:14
Speaker 9: exchange unfolded.
41:15
Speaker 5: You are a terrorist settler.
41:18
Speaker 1: You know that coming.
41:23
Speaker 5: You are a terrorist settler in garbage. You know what's
41:25
Speaker 5: what that means. You stink, move, move, don't touch me.
41:32
Speaker 5: Don't touch me. Terrorists, you are a terrorist. I love
41:42
Speaker 5: to be in my house.
41:43
Speaker 16: This is okay, that's my property, that's belonged to me.
41:47
Speaker 16: But that's all all defense I did that get the damaged.
41:52
Speaker 16: That's my entrance right here, That's that's my property. Yes,
41:55
Speaker 16: I'm not I'm not going any any beyond my property.
41:59
Speaker 5: Said, there go, You've been I'm not here at each other, Okay,
42:02
Speaker 5: I'm not. I thought, Yeah, he's the one came to me.
42:05
Speaker 5: I didn't go to him. You know, I was walking
42:08
Speaker 5: peacefully to check the property. I came here last night.
42:13
Speaker 5: I was in America. I planted this before I left.
42:17
Speaker 5: I know, and I can find all this damage.
42:20
Speaker 2: Louie, do you fear for your safety, because of course
42:23
Speaker 2: we know that not only is there a threat to
42:25
Speaker 2: your property, but we've seen Palestinians assaulted, We've seen Palestinians
42:29
Speaker 2: killed by settlers.
42:32
Speaker 9: Is that something you're fearful of?
42:33
Speaker 2: And if you were, say, in a horrific scenario, if
42:37
Speaker 2: you were assaulted, what do you think would happen after that?
42:40
Speaker 2: Would there be any justice meet it out to the
42:43
Speaker 2: people who committed those crimes.
42:47
Speaker 4: Well, absolutely, I do fear for my own safety. I
42:50
Speaker 4: do feel for my family's safety here and even the
42:55
Speaker 4: neighbor's safety. And I've been saying this now for days,
42:59
Speaker 4: and I've been asked in the US government and the
43:01
Speaker 4: US embassy that this is my house, this is my property.
43:05
Speaker 4: I do feel for my safety and I need a
43:07
Speaker 4: protection and I needed actually to be done on the
43:12
Speaker 4: ground to move the settlers and as you watch the video,
43:19
Speaker 4: the IDF guy, he listened to the settler because he
43:23
Speaker 4: was telling him I need to leave, I need to leave,
43:25
Speaker 4: I need to go back, to leave this area because
43:29
Speaker 4: this is his land. And sure he did. The idea
43:32
Speaker 4: of soldiers came to me. He's asking me to leave.
43:35
Speaker 4: I said, no, you're supposed to arrest him. He needs
43:37
Speaker 4: to be a move he's the one a leader. This
43:40
Speaker 4: is my property. So the idea, they're not doing their job.
43:43
Speaker 4: They always started with the with the settlers. So yes,
43:47
Speaker 4: we live in fear.
43:49
Speaker 3: Here and Louis, if you leave and you come back
43:53
Speaker 3: to the United States, what do you fear is going
43:55
Speaker 3: to happen?
43:57
Speaker 4: Well, that's really a big concert term if the settlers
44:04
Speaker 4: still able to come around my house while these operations
44:09
Speaker 4: is still active, while the IDF declared it's a close
44:14
Speaker 4: military zone and they still manage as you just saw
44:18
Speaker 4: in the video, they just walked in freely and he
44:20
Speaker 4: was negotiating with him, like begging him just to leave
44:23
Speaker 4: the scene. This is not how you deal with a
44:26
Speaker 4: criminal like this. You should be arrested. So what's going
44:30
Speaker 4: to happen if the IDEAF and the international media stop
44:33
Speaker 4: covering an idea of leave that means they left us
44:38
Speaker 4: along with the settlers. It is a huge risk and
44:42
Speaker 4: concern to us.
44:43
Speaker 2: I saw that you raised an American flag above your house,
44:46
Speaker 2: hoping that might provide some modocum of protection, or at
44:50
Speaker 2: the very least, if they do take over your house,
44:52
Speaker 2: that there would be a message set when they take
44:54
Speaker 2: down the American flag and raise the Israeli flag, as.
44:58
Speaker 9: They would be likely to do.
45:00
Speaker 2: Do you have any expectation that the American government would
45:03
Speaker 2: come to your aid. They have issued some statements upset
45:05
Speaker 2: about the you know, the settler assault on Kusra, the
45:09
Speaker 2: village that your house is in. But do you think
45:12
Speaker 2: that the American government would come to your aid in
45:17
Speaker 2: under horrific circumstances.
45:19
Speaker 4: Actually, in the last three days, I've been asking the
45:22
Speaker 4: US embassy to come and visit me here to see
45:25
Speaker 4: what we have been dealing with. I'm an American citizen
45:29
Speaker 4: and is my right to ask to be protected. Yes,
45:34
Speaker 4: Mike Kakabe has been condemning those actions against the Israeli
45:42
Speaker 4: settlers in Golden terrorists. I appreciate this, but that was
45:47
Speaker 4: not enough. We still want a follow up. We want
45:51
Speaker 4: action underground to build moved, and I'm asking again that
45:57
Speaker 4: our investment that Mike Kakaby to come himself up and
46:00
Speaker 4: visit me here so he can see himself what's going
46:03
Speaker 4: on in my own house.
46:05
Speaker 2: Wow, Louis Riddie, thank you so much for taking the
46:08
Speaker 2: time to explain to us your situation.
46:10
Speaker 9: Please keep us updated.
46:11
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you for having me.
46:13
Speaker 2: It's our pleasure, all right, guys, that does it for
46:16
Speaker 2: us today. Thank you so much for watching. I'm actually
46:19
Speaker 2: headed out of town taking my daughter to college, which
46:22
Speaker 2: I'm very emotional about, so I will be out next week.
46:25
Speaker 2: But you'll of course be in great hands with Sager
46:27
Speaker 2: and Emily and Ryan, so we will all see you
46:30
Speaker 2: guys soon